Walmart could afford to pay its employees enough to get off of welfare & still have cheap bread. They'd just have to take a bit less in profit. Corporate profit vs wage disparity has never been more pronounced than it is right now. Taxpayers are also subsidizing the record profit levels of the other major retailers as well. Walmart employees would just face the same working-poor wage level if they went to some other big retailer.

The Department of Commerce said last week that corporate profits hit an all-time high in the third quarter of this year, up more than 18% over last year. It also noted that workers are not benefiting from record profits. In fact, wages have now fallen to a record low of 43.5% of GDP.

Let that sink in for a moment....

After-tax profits are at their greatest percentage of GDP in history.

Workers' wages have fallen to their lowest-ever share of GDP.

Oh look a pretty graph! Doesn't matter. Profitability goes down, prices go up or expenses got down, both/either or. You hava board and shareholders to answer. This is all industries and corporate profit by the way, not just Wal-Mart or the retail sector only. Nice selective data... Record profits blah blah blah!!!!